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A New Island Emerges After Pakistan Quake

The official casualty toll from the major earthquake in Pakistan’s western Baluchistan province rose overnight to 208, and authorities are continuing a major rescue operation with army troops and helicopters.

But Pakistani officials are also investigating perhaps the most unexpected outcome of Tuesday’s disaster: The sudden appearance of a small island off the country’s southwestern coast.

Following the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.7 according to the U.S. Geographical Survey, witnesses reported the emergence of new island near the port of Gwadar, on the Arabian Sea. Pakistani television showed images of the formation, which Dawn newspaper said appeared to be about 200 meters long and 100 meters wide.

Arif Mahmood, the director general of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, said Pakistan’s National Institute of Oceanography was dispatching a team of team of researchers to survey the new island, which is visible from the shore. The Geological Survey of Pakistan, headquartered in Baluchistan’s provincial capital of Quetta, may send also send a team, Mr. Mahmood added

Reuters

An island that rose from the sea following an earthquake is pictured off Pakistan’s Gwadar coastline in the Arabian Sea September 25, 2013.

The U.S. Geological Survey notes in a detailed summary of the incident that the movement of at least four major tectonic plates are responsible for earthquakes and seismic activity in the region.

According to the USGS, the movement of the India plate – sliding northwards toward the Eurasia plate at a rate of 40 mm per year – contributes to the rise of mountains in northern Pakistan and Afghanistan.

The earthquake is also likely to bring renewed focus on Baluchistan, a poor province that is also the location of much of the country’s mineral wealth. Baluchistan has for decades seen unrest, with Baluch separatists waging an insurgent campaign and nationalist parties pressing for greater autonomy from the central government.

Pakistani authorities have set up staging areas to move relief supplies in two major cities: Karachi, the country’s giant southern metropolis, and Quetta.

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